Hip Hop News Source

Today Dame Dash had an interview with Power 105.1 The Breakfast Club to promote his new film “Loisaidas” that is directed by him and co-executive produced by Kanye West. Though he came to promote the film he spent 90 percent of his time trying to convince the three radio hosts that he doesn’t work for anyone and has never worked for anyone. The whole situation started very early in the interview when DJ Envy asked Dame how he met Jay Z. Dame being tired of being asked that same question and talking about Jay Z went on a rant directed towards Envy saying “No more Jay Z questions, I answered them all.” You can watch the full interview down below.

On Jay Z’s album Magna Carta Holy Grail there was a song called “Versus” that is in the news now even though the track only last a total of 51 seconds. The producers of the track were Timbaland and Swizz Beatz and they sampled a Swiss musician named Bruno Spoerri and gave him zero credit and now they have to pay up. All three have to pay Spoerri 50% of the songs total earnings and this is what Spoerri has to say about it “In a way I’m flattered that a relatively young rapper takes a sample from an old man, a sample that is about 35 years old. On the other hand I’m furious because it would have been so simple to clear the sample. All it would have needed was a call or an email to the company and I think it would have been relatively cheap.” This legal dispute took about 18 months to get sorted out but now the 78-year-old Bruno Spoerri will be getting a paid for his contribution.

T-Pain just hasn’t been a huge presence in the music world for a very long time but hopefully that will be changing very soon. A few months back T-Pain announced that he would be working with Gangsta Grillz on a new mixtape called “The Iron Way”. This project now has an official release date of March 26^th which is a lot sooner than expected but great news for his fans. This mixtape will be a great appetizer before T-Pain drops his next studio album titled “Stoicville: The Phoenix. Keep it right here for more information on T-Pains upcoming projects.

It is well known that Drake is one of the most successful artists in hip-hop so it is always nice to see him giving back to the community. Drake has donated a whopping $75,000 to Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This money is being used to make a brand new recording studio in the school which is in one of the poorest and most dangerous parts of the city. Back in 2013 Drake visited the school and invited some students to a private pre-show where he told them about the donation but Drake has yet to speak publicly about it. This is a great thing for that school to get kids that might otherwise be out on the streets into the studio recording and creating music.

 

The streaming service “Aspiro” who we recently wrote about for looking to pass on Jay Z’s offer is now owned by Jay. After making a bid of $56 million the streaming company based in Sweden it was finally accepted. As for what will be done with the streaming service we have no idea as of right now but where it stands at $19.99/month it will not stand up against the competition that is much cheaper but hopefully Jay Z and his team realize this and will make the right adjustments. Streaming music seems to be the future with Spotify, Pandora, and Beats music soon to be installed on all future Apple devices it should be interesting to see what Jay can do in this space and if it will be successful.

Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan have seemed to be real close these last few months but it seems as though things may be changing. During a show on his Rodeo tour with fellow rapper Travis Scott Young Thug referred to Rich Homie Quan as “lame” as well as calling him “Bitch Homie Quan”. “Speaking of horses..You saw the fucking video, man. This stupid lame, that n*gga tripping. That Bitch Homie Quan,” said Young Thug. Young Thug later took to Instagram to clear things up by saying there was no beef between the two but he never makes it clear why he said what he said which makes everyone skeptical.  Check out the video.

Kanye is in Paris for fashion week with concerts all over the city things can get pretty hectic. While Kanye was busy promoting his music and ideas all of his music may have actually been stolen. Malik Yusef recently tweeted out that Kanye’s laptop was jacked and “private firms” have gotten involved in the investigation to find it. Hopefully they find the laptop fast and Kanye doesn’t suffer a leak of his upcoming work that can deal a devastating blow the sales of his album.

Today someone thought it would be fun to call 911 and reported a shooting of four people at Lil Waynes home. Cops rushed to the mansion and set up because and the Young Money twitter tweeted out “Wayne is okay. Wasn’t home during alleged events.” The Miami Beach Police tweeted out soon after “’Swatting’ is a possibility but MBPD does not take chances when responding to these types of calls.” Then Lil Wayne confirmed this also on twitter saying “Prank Kall mane”.

 

Pharrell and Robin Thick have spent the last two weeks in District Court with eight jurors finally getting a verdict on their “Blurred Lines” copyright case. They came to the conclusion that they did in fact infringe on Marvin Gaye’s song “Got to Give It Up” and are forced to pay $7.4 million. The Gaye family was awarded $4 million in damages with profits of $1.6 million from Pharrell and $1.76 million from Robin Thicke. The two released this statement after the verdict game out “While we respect the judicial process, we are extremely disappointed in the ruling made today, which sets a horrible precedent for music and creativity going forward,” said Williams, Thicke, and T.I. “‘Blurred Lines’ was created from the heart and minds of Pharrell, Robin, and T.I. and not taken from anyone or anywhere else. We are reviewing the decision, considering our options and you will hear more from us soon about this matter.”

Kendrick Lamar is going to be covering Rolling Stone magazine and talked about his upcoming project. When talking about his new material Kendrick said “Every producer I’ve ever met was sending me stuff [for the album], but there was a one-in-a-million chance you could send a beat that actually fit what we were doing.” Kendrick also has revealed the title of the new album which is “To Pimp a Butterfly” though he hasn’t gone into too much detail about the meaning. When asked to describe the album Kendrick said it’s “honest, fearful and unapologetic.”

The rapper by the name of Rocko has landed himself in jail recently. Back on Friday Rocko was arrested along with a friend when he was caught drag racing on interstate 75 driving a Rolls-Royce and BMW. The funny thing is that neither of the two was arrested for the actual drag racing but they did arrest Rocko for a suspended license and caught his friend who was trying to flee and charged him with fleeing and eluding police.

Suge Knight was arrested back on January 30^th for murder and attempted murder as we all know. When he tried to make bail it was denied with the reasoning being he is a “possible flight risk, three-strike candidate, possible witness intimidation issues and his criminal past,” said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Times. Suge is trying to say that the guys he hit had guns and threatened his life and wants the hit and run to count as standing his ground. Yesterday a manager for one of the men hit by Suge came forth saying that his client Cle “Bone” Sloan was not in possession of a firearm when the incident occurred also adding that Bone did not threaten his life and that he could of easily exited the parking lot without hitting anyone. Bones manager says that the object that can be seen in his hand in the video of the incident is actually just a walkie-talkie. We will keep you up to date on this story as it continues to progress.

As we all know Chris has been all over the celebrity news sites for quite some time now and most recently for the fact that he has a 9 month old baby girl. So the singer took to Instagram to give everyone that is giving him a hard time some words. Chris first posted this “When you’re going through a difficulty and you’re wondering where God is…Remember the teacher is always quiet during the test.” Then he went straight into a long post to everyone that follows him on Instagram. “Some of you ignorant human beings on here have yet to grasp the concept of your own lives. This is for encouragement for anyone dealing with their own issues. Half of yall pages are private and the others look so damn depressing I understand why u feel like u have the right to say some of the most outrageous things possible. U don’t have to like me but one thing is for sure… You all are looking though.. That’s the diffeence between leadership and being a cancer to this planet. We have no real leaders or people to join together for great things anymore. At least not the youth… We will one day drown in a pool of our own negativity. Be blessed or be quiet,” Chris posted.

Back on March 1^st the former NBA All-Star Steve Francis got his chain taken while at a concert in Houston Texas. A new video posted to youtube shows us exactly where Francis’ chain ended up, in none other than the hands of Rap-A-Lot Records CEO James Prince. In the video Prince says “This is Steve Francis’ chain and it shall be returned to him, It’s not even broken. [It’s] in good shape.” The full video is below.

It has just been announced that Tyler, The Creator is going on a world tour that will span a whole three months. It will begin in April in Arizona and come to a close in Washington by the end of June.  Right after his Coachella shows on April 11^th and 18^th Tyler will make stops in New Orleans, Jacksonville, Miami Beach, Richmond and Detroit then head overseas in May performing in Scotland, England, Germany, Netherlands, France, and Spain. Each show is going to be opened by Odd Future member Taco with no other acts being announced as of this moment. The full list is below and it is a huge one.

4/6 — Tempe, AZ @ The Marquee

4/11 — Indio, CA @ Coachella

4/18 — Indio, CA @ Coachella

4/20 — New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues

4/21 — Oxford, MS @ The Lyric Oxford

4/22 — Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre

4/24 — Jacksonville, FL @ Mavericks at the Landing

4/25 — Saint Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Live

4/26 — Miami Beach, FL @ The Fillmore – Jackie Gleason Theater

4/28 — Orlando, FL @ The Plaza Live

4/29 — Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore

5/1 — Myrtle Beach, SC @ House of Blues

5/2 — Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz

5/3 — Norfolk, VA @ The Norva

5/5 — Richmond, VA @ The National

5/6 –Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall

5/8 — Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s

5/9 — Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore

5/10 — Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection

5/12 — Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland

5/13 — Manchester, England @ Academy

5/14 — London, England @ Roundhouse

5/15 — Bristol, England @ O2 Academy

5/17 — Utrecht, Netherlands @ Ronda

5/19 — Hamburg, Germany @ Mojo

5/20 — Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega

5/21 — Berlin, Germany @ C-Club

5/23 — Zurich, Switzerland @ Volkhaus

5/24 — Munich, Germany @ Theater Fabrik

5/25 — Cologne, Germany @ Kantine

5/26 — Paris, France @ Le Trianon

5/28 — Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Sound

6/5 — Dallas, TX @ Bomb Factory

6/7 — Tulsa, OK @ Cain’s Ballroom

6/10 — Baltimore, MD @ Ram’s Head Live

6/12 — New York, NY @ Irving Plaza

6/14 — Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom

6/20 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant

6/21 — Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note

6/26 — Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre

6/28 — Missoula, MT @ Top Hat Lounge

6/30 — Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory